Plenty of static over electronic voting machines
By BRIAN CALLAWAY
The Intelligencer   28 June 2005

Marybeth Kuznik had to wing her part of the program when she couldn't get the overhead presentation she'd prepared to work.

"To err is human," she told the audience. "To screw something up really big time takes a computer."

She meant it as a joke, but it ended up becoming a de facto theme Monday at a public forum on different voting methods at Bucks County's courthouse. Speaker after speaker lambasted the types of electronic voting machines Bucks County could soon buy as ripe for errors or tampering.

Rebecca Mercuri, a computer scientist and critic of electronic voting machines, told the crowd that it's impossible to make sure such computerized election systems are secure.

"There's no way to do that," she said. "If we could do that, then Microsoft would have eliminated the viruses and we wouldn't be getting spam in our e-mail anymore."

The forum, organized by the Bucks County Coalition for Voting Integrity, drew more than 100 residents.

It also drew Bucks' top elected officials, the commissioners, who are now faced with having to replace the Eisenhower-era lever-operated voting machines the county has had for half a century.

Election reform laws passed in the wake of 2000's disputed presidential election set aside money to replace those types of machines and others in time for next year's elections. The commissioners have grumbled about getting rid of the old machines, but they recently applied for state grant money to replace them.

County leaders say they're now waiting for the state to certify which types of voting machines can be used, but critics are already worried they may buy electronic voting machines they don't consider reliable.
 

Several speakers at Monday's forum said Bucks should keep its lever machines and simply forego the money it would get to buy new ones.

Commissioner Sandy Miller said she wasn't sure that was possible, though.

"I don't know what the legal ramifications of that are," she said. "We're at the mercy of various regulations."

Like other county leaders, Miller also reiterated her belief that the Bucks' current machines work just fine.

"I continue to feel this is just a waste of money," she said.

Monday's forum was preceded by a skit on how easy it is to tamper with electronic voting machines, as well as a fife and drum performance by a trio dressed up in red white and blue colonial-era military garb.

Other speakers at the forum talked about legislation working its way through Congress that would mandate the use of verifiable paper trails for electronic machines, and other types of voting methods Bucks could use.

Afterward, several attendees said they were uncomfortable with moving to electronic voting machines.

"I was really shocked to hear how easy the electronic machines ... can be to hack into," said Stephanie Odell of Newtown.